Too Late
by Les Miserabby
Summary: There will finally be justice, but not for her. It's too late. Using Fanfiction to make a statement about a serious issue that everyone insists on ignoring? Why not! Modern AU, set in Canada TW: racism, mentions of abuse, implied death


Too Late

The first time he sees her, he's captivated and filled with curiosity, even though it is nothing more than a brief glimpse as they pass on the street. She's beautiful to him, with her soft brown skin, dark eyes, and long black hair. But not her smile.

Her smile has the potential to be beautiful, but it isn't. He can tell that it's forced. A forced smile is never beautiful, it's too full of pain and struggling. To him, a fake smile just can't be beautiful because it reflects the problems of society. Society refuses to acknowledge and take seriously the problems of others. Society doesn't want to see the suffering. So those who suffer are forced to fake a smile to keep everyone else happy. A symbol of a lack of caring could never be beautiful to him.

His heart immediately goes out to the unknown girl, and he finds himself hoping that whatever is hurting her ends soon.

* * *

><p>The second time he sees her, he learns her name. Éponine. Marius' shadow, and Gavroche's older sister. She follows them to the meeting, and he instantly recognizes her. He almost never forgets a face. Especially when it so perfectly captures the image of exactly what they are fighting for. Equal rights, representation, an answer to why the government is sitting back and not caring about the 1,181 missing and murdered aboriginal women. (1)<p>

She listens to every word that is said, and even joins in at one point.

"They don't care because they don't want to see it," she says. "They don't want to believe that Canada's really no better than anywhere else. They don't mind seeing racism in other countries, they can criticize them and feel better about themselves, but here... They don't want to believe it. They're just wilfully blind."

"We'll make them see," Enjolras retorts, feeling, and he can see his best friend's face burn as red as his sweater as she rolls her eyes at him.

"It's been decades, and they still don't see. We will _never_ have justice. At least not while the damned Tories are still in power," she adds with a scoff.

She has a point, and he gives her that. Harper and his conservatives only care about big businesses, not actual people. And so far they're proving to really not care about the missing and murdered women. Éponine seems particularly put off, but of course she does. She herself is First Nations. It affects her more than it affects him. She could be next.

He decides to talk to her after the meeting, curious about her opinions on the topic. Enjolras entrusted him with a lot of the planning, and her thoughts will likely be useful.

* * *

><p>Her sister is one of them. Her younger sister, Azelma, has been missing for three years with no inquiry, no one caring. She went missing at the age of fifteen, when Éponine was seventeen. It tore her family, already struggling with drug and alcohol abuse – a common occurrence as a result of the suffering caused by the residential schools, a problem that transcends generations through a long line of abuse(2) – even further apart.<p>

No wonder she always looks so sad.

He learns that information a month after she first started attending their meetings, while on a walk with her. After that first discussion after the meeting, their constant debates on the topic of the systematic racism in Canada has sparked a friendship.

He learns that she wanted to be a social worker, to try and help others, but felt unable to do so because of the challenges in her life. Instead she bounces from part-time job to part-time job, always wishing she'd managed to finish high school.

He learns about her boyfriend, Montparnasse, and notices how she seems a bit hesitant speaking about him. He wonders if Montparnasse is the one responsible for the bruises on her arms that she almost succeeds in hiding, and the black eye she had the week before.

They talk about everything, and they argue a little, more teasing than anything else, and for the first time, he sees a real smile on her face, and to him, it is the most beautiful thing in the world.

"You're the nicest person I've ever met," she tells him as they reach where she lives.

"Really?" he asks, a smile on his lips. He lifts a hand to adjust his glasses. "You must not have met that many people then."

"I mean it, Ferre," she says, grinning. Her smile is beautiful, and lights up her entire face. He really likes it when she smiles. "Most people just hurt me."

"Like your boyfriend?" he asks, and immediately regrets it. The smile is gone, and he knows he crossed a line.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she says quickly, and then she's gone inside, and he feels empty. She opened up to him and, in a way, he feels like he's criticized her for her choice in relationship. He leaves, feeling like an idiot.

* * *

><p>She calls him the next day, and, to his relief, all is more or less forgiven. Her boyfriend does hurt her, she admits, but only on occasion, when he's really drunk. She brushes it off as no big deal, but to him, it is a big deal.<p>

No one deserves that treatment, and he tells her so.

She shrugs it off, as though she doesn't care. She says it's normal, and insists that it isn't a big deal.

He feels his heart break at the thought of a life where such blatant abuse is normalized, and finds that the stats and figures on the disproportionate abuse in First Nations communities run through his head again. He'd known the facts for well over a year, but until meeting Éponine, they'd just been statistics. Knowing someone who lived that somehow made it worse.

He remembers what his grade ten history teacher told their class several years before, a quote from Stalin: "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."

Knowing Éponine now, it seems more relevant to him than ever, and he feels like he understands it more than he ever did. It is easier to forget the a large group of people is human than it is with an individual. An individual is more human. Especially when you know them. With one person, you can actually have a face.

Éponine has become the one for him. She is the tragedy that gave the statistics he knew more of a meaning.

He is beginning to realize that he is slowly falling for her. He prays that they can change things soon. He doesn't want to see her hurt anymore.

* * *

><p>One year later, their group stands together at a memorial for the nearly two thousand missing and murdered aboriginal women of Canada. After thirty years of pointless suffering, there will finally be justice. There will be an inquiry, and investigations in an attempt to close all of the open cases.<p>

There will be justice at last.

But not for Éponine.

It was too late for her.

**Basically, I got really sick of all of the bullshit happening here in Canada so this happened. This is actually a really serious issue here that all too often is totally overlooked. And this could very easily happen to some of the girls I'm friends with. This needs to change, but it won't if people keep overlooking it. Nothing will change if we don't give these issues the attention they deserve.**

**1) In thirty years, 1181 aboriginal women are missing and murdered. 1071 are homicide victims. 164 women and girls are still missing. 225 cases are still unsolved.**

**2) Residential schools. I recommend googling this one. This is a major issue amongst the indigenous people in Canada, and almost all of the abuse, drugs, alcohol, etc can be directly traced back to them. You could actually teach entire courses just on the residential schools. But a brief summary: for decades First Nations children were taken from their families by the government, off the reserves, and put into residential schools. The point was to 'beat the Indian out of the child'. It was all an attempt at assimilation. The children faced extreme levels of abuse, and suffered from serious trauma. The last school was shut down in the 80s. They never learned love, and, of course, when there is no love, there can never be anything but pain suffering. This has gone on through generations, and healing will take a long time.**

**Canada is, in many ways, just as screwed with racism as other countries. We just don't hear about it or talk about it because we like to pretend it doesn't happen. Instead, it all takes place in the form of denial and erasure. This needs to stop, and now.**


End file.
